


You Could Stay

by JoyTurtle



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Campaign 2 (Critical Role), F/F, Fluff, just a little bit of Angst in the beginning I guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-29 00:15:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15060884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoyTurtle/pseuds/JoyTurtle
Summary: When Beau can't sleep she takes a walk and guess who she comes across...Somebody who's been gone for way too long.





	You Could Stay

Beau finally gave up on a good night's sleep as she restlessly shifted on her bedroll to face the night sky. Her watch had ended hours ago and it wouldn't be long until the sun came up. The sky was slowly turning blue, the stars seemed to almost disappear one by one and birds had started chirping in the nearby trees.

Fjord was pacing around the camp they had set up by the foot of a small hill slightly offside the road, and Nott, who had taken the last watch with him, was quietly sitting by the crackling fire. She seemed just as wrapped in thought as Beau and those thoughts were all over the place; racing, spinning, and spiraling in her head, incoherent and messy. She thought of Jester and what it had felt like to see the first friend Beau's ever had get shot with a barrage of arrows; she thought of Dolan and Horace, hoping they'd ever manage to reunite; she thought of Yasha, wondering how she was doing and if she ever thought of Beau and the group; she thought of the first girl she'd ever kissed and the first time she'd ever punched someone until they bled out at her feet; she thought of Caleb's face when he'd told her that he had killed his parents; and she thought of her own parents.

 

_There won't be a place for you in this house anymore, Beauregard. I don't want to see you ever again._

 

The memory of her father popped into her head, towering over her, imbued with hatred and disappointment. Beau remembered her mother standing a few feet behind him, desperate, trembling and staring at her with wide eyes but not stopping him, never stopping him.

 

_Beau! Please don't take her away! Beau! Please!_

 

Before the memory of her sister crying and screaming Beau's name could fully form in her head, Beau put an end to this.

She jolted up from her bedroll, barely suppressing a groan of frustration. Nott let out a small shriek and instinctively grabbed her crossbow at the sudden noise and motion. Luckily nobody woke up.

“Sorry”, said Beau. “Didn't mean to startle you.”

“No, i-it's okay”, said Nott and put her crossbow down. “Did you have a bad dream or something?”

Beau rubbed her eyes and stood up, her bones still aching a bit from a rough fight the night before.

“Sort of. Hey, listen, I'm gonna take a walk, okay?”

Fjord had noticed the small commotion by the fire and approached them with a stern look on his face.

“You sure about that? Think it's a good idea to wander about on your own in the dark?” he asked and furrowed his brow, but Beau was already putting on her robe and grabbed her staff.

“Don't sweat it, guys. I'll be back before you know it. It's no big deal. Besides, this is a halfling farming region and not a fucking troll swamp.” She tried to seem as nonchalant as possible and before either Fjord or Nott could object, she was already making her way up and over the small hill they were camping by.

The early morning air felt cold and sharp against her skin, even colder after stepping away from the warm fire but it felt good. Beau made sure she was out of sight from the camp before she stopped walking and took a deep breath, letting the wind blow away the cobwebs in her head. At least for now.

There were things she didn't allow herself to think about, so she pushed them to the back of her mind, as far back as she could but still, those things were always with her. They were with her when she fought, when she drank and when she was scared to go to bed and close her eyes.

Another breath of cold air hit her face. The other side of the hill went a little further down than expected and Beau took in the view of the large forest they were planning to traverse later, stretching for miles and miles, reaching as far as the mountains on the horizon. She sat down on the dewy grass.

The sky was mostly clear with only a faint veil of clouds tinged with the reds and golds of the oncoming sunrise but still a crack of thunder echoed in the distance. Perhaps a storm was brewing somewhere and Beau just hoped it wasn't where they were headed. They've had such a sunny streak for weeks and she was absolutely not missing the rain, the muddy streets and always being at least a little damp.

There was, however, one pleasant thing Beau associated with a storm. Only one. But it's been weeks, much longer than ever before, and they haven't heard a thing from her, so Beau wasn't getting her hopes up.

What would she and the rest of the group actually do if Yasha just never returned? Would they look for her? How long would they wait before they did? She could be dead in a ditch somewhere and they wouldn't know.

Suddenly, Beau had a thought that got her maybe a little too excited: Jester can send messages now, no matter how far! They could send a quick message to Yasha, just to check in on her. Make sure she's okay.

_That's a great fucking idea_ , Beau thought. So great in fact, that she almost couldn't wait to go back and tell Jester about it.

Beau was about to get up, perhaps take the long way down the hill and head back to camp but she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw... something... moving down in the shadows at the foot of the hill, right on the edge of the woods. Something big, a humanoid shape, was making its way out of the forest.  
Beau rummaged around for her goggles that were somewhere deep down in one of her large pockets and quickly put them on but they didn't help much. It was a person and whoever it was, they were moving up the hill towards her. Beau started to slowly back up but as the figure stepped out of the shadows into the very first rays of dawn that had finally crept over the mountain range, Beau recognized who it was.

The six foot tall, pale-skinned, _ripped_ barbarian timidly waved at Beau, who couldn't believe it and just stood there, completely dumbstruck.

“Yasha”, said Beau and took just a few steps towards her. “What are you... how- how did you know we were here?” She didn't know what to say and this was the first and only thing that came to her mind. Yasha shrugged.

“Well, you know, I have my ways. Besides, I mean, I knew where you guys were headed and I saw a little bit of smoke coming from a fire, so I- I took a guess.” She could speak with a softness that completely contradicted everything about her appearance and it always made Beau's knees a little weak, but she adamantly chose to ignore that.

“Well, you got it. It's- here we are”, said Beau and gestured roughly towards the direction of the camp. Yasha nodded and then pointed at Beau's face.

“Do you have a problem with your eyes?”

“Huh?”

“You've got-” Yasha formed the shape of glasses with her hands around her eyes.

“Oh!” Beau realized she was still wearing the goggles. “Nah, just tried to see a bit better with my measly human eyes”, she said and propped them up on her head.

Yasha gave her a small smile and looked at her. They held the gaze for a moment too long before they both awkwardly looked away.

“W-what are you doing out here by yourself this early?” asked Yasha and cleared her throat.

“Oh, uhh, just... I couldn't sleep. I don't know. Just needed to clear my head, you know, and this is... quite the place for it.” Beau looked at the morning sun slowly rising over the mountain tops, bathing the rolling hills wreathed in mist around them and the wide woodlands beyond in a golden light.

“Yeah”, said Yasha with a sigh. “Pretty. I quite like sunrises like this.” She watched the spectacle for a moment with an expression on her face that Beau couldn't quite place. She seemed pensive, a little wistful but also completely in awe.

“You didn't get to see many sunrises like this in Xhorhas, did you?” asked Beau and her voice was so much softer and quieter than it normally was. She didn't _try_ to sound soft. She didn't _try_ to sound genuine. Sometimes she just _was_ because sometimes she truly felt it. Yasha turned back towards her.

“No.” She shook her head, gave Beau a weak smile and then looked at the ground. There was a moment of silence before Beau opened her mouth to say something else but Yasha beat her to it.

“Anyway, I will leave you alone now if you want some time to think. Head to the camp, say hello to the others.” She raised her eyebrows, seemingly waiting for Beau to tell her to go, but Beau didn't want that.

“Yeah, sure, sure... that's- yeah” was all Beau was able to stammer out. “Or, you know, I mean... you could stay?” she asked, trying to sound casual. “Watch, uhh, this whole... situation... for a bit?” She motioned towards the sunrise and added “I mean, there's only so much in here to think about”, pointing at her head. “I think I'm done for the day.”

Yasha's expression was horrifyingly unreadable as she said nothing. Beau knew that only a few seconds passed before Yasha finally answered but it still felt like that moment lasted for ages.

“I would...” Yasha said. “I would really like that.”

Beau was mostly able to suppress a gasp of relief but she was sure it showed on her face anyway so she quickly turned away from Yasha and sat down on the ground. Yasha sat down next to her.

The two women didn't say anything fore a while and as Beau sat there on the ground, feeling the dewy grass with her fingers and the sun on her face with Yasha sitting next to her, close enough that their arms and legs were almost touching, she realized that this was a _terrible fucking idea._

Beau should run away from this. She shouldn't take another watch with Yasha; she shouldn't try to talk to her more; shouldn't tell her anything about herself, either; and she certainly shouldn't be sitting here with her watching the damn sunrise. Beau should run away from this whole thing while she still could.

But she also realized that she didn't want to.

This was a terrible fucking idea and Beau was in no way, shape or form ready for whatever was going to happen next but she wasn't going to change a damn thing about it.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, friends! So, this is the first Critical Role fan fiction I've ever written. Well, in fact, it's the first fan fiction in general that I've ever written and I honestly do NOT know what I'm doing. I don't know how to tag shit, I don't know how to write summaries, I don't know what half of anything on this site means. I know nothing. 
> 
> I just had some images in my head, a few ideas, a couple of words and I wrote them down and this happened. Maybe I'll write more, maybe I won't but regardless - let me know what you think!
> 
> One more thing: I'm German. And comma placement is a nightmare. Bye.


End file.
